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| Stockyards here taking extra cattle |
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2/5/2016
By Tom Marshall
Senior Advocate writer
Bluegrass Stockyards East in Mt. Sterling is bracing for extra business in wake of the tragic fire that struck the flagship stockyards in Lexington this past Saturday.
Tim Gayheart, manager of the Mt. Sterling stockyards, said sales were brisk Monday as many farmers turned to the operation here in response to the Lexington fire.
“The numbers are going to be bigger,” Gayheart told the Advocate.
Bluegrass operates several stockyards throughout Kentucky and has been encouraging Lexington customers to take their cattle to Mt. Sterling and Stanford.
Gayheart said more than 600 cattle were sold in Mt. Sterling Monday with sales scheduled to continue Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. Wednesdays are generally a big day for the stockyards with anywhere from 800 to 1,200 cattle sold, Gayheart said.
Gayheart and Scott Bucher, part-owner of Bluegrass Stockyards, said the Mt. Sterling facility is prepared for the extra cattle that will be coming through here.
“There shouldn’t be any problem,” Bucher told the Advocate.
The Mt. Sterling stockyards is essentially a 24-hour a day operation, Gayheart said. The work crew cleans the facility between sales.
Beginning next week a new sales schedule will go into place for Bluegrass-owned stockyards in this area.
“We’re going to make the most out of a bad situation,” Bucher said.
Sales will be held on Mondays in Mt. Sterling and Stanford, Tuesdays at Richmond and Maysville, Wednesdays at Mt. Sterling, Campbellsville and Albany, Thursdays at Stanford, Fridays in Richmond and Saturdays in Campbellsville, Mt. Sterling and Maysville.
The Lexington Fire Dept. continues to investigate the blaze that destroyed Bluegrass and five other businesses Saturday afternoon. It is considered the worst fire in Lexington in more than 30 days.
More than 120 firefighters battled the blaze.
The fire also killed at least 32 head of cattle, all of which were insured, Bucher said. The previous Saturday there would have been 200 to 300 head on site, he said.
Bucher said it was fortunate the fire occurred when it did because 24 hours later the stockyards would have had 500 to 600 cattle on hand. If it had occurred on a weekday there would have been thousands of cattle there, he added.
“If you had to pick a time for that to happen that was the best time you could pick ... ,” Bucher said. “It was the least amount of cattle probably that is ever in that facility.”
Bucher said future plans for the Lexington operation have not been decided, but that owners do plan to get a facility up and running as soon as possible.
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